3 Red Army Jewish Veterans Denounce Solzhenitsyn’s Expulsion

Three extensively decorated Red Army veterans–all of them Jews from Minsk–have condemned the expulsion of Soviet author and Nobel Laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn as “a manifestation of Stalinism in our time.” Those words were contained in a telegram sent to Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny by Naum Alshansky, Yefim Davidovich and Lev Ovsicher. A copy of the text was obtained by the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews which released it here today.

The statement said: “We vigorously condemn the expulsion from the country of the great Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, fearless fighter against Stalin’s crimes; fighter for liberty, for democracy, for the rights of man. The exile of Solzhenitsyn is a manifestation of Stalinism in our time. By such an abominable and shameful action, you have condemned yourself for a longer time than his exile might last. You have condemned yourself forever. You have expelled from this country the honor and the conscience of Russia.” The three veterans hold between them 43 orders and medals awarded by the Red Army.

Meanwhile, in New York, Judah J. Shapiro, president, and Jacob Katzman, executive vice-president of the Labor Zionist Alliance, recalled “the criminal execution of Yiddish writers in the USSR some 20 years ago” and said. “We are thankful that Solzhenitsyn has been spared from death or the horrors of being imprisoned again.” They noted, however, that “the forcible expulsion from one’s native land of one seeking the free expression of his opinion, must be repugnant to all who cherish human liberty and the freedom of the human spirit.” The act of expulsion, Shapiro and Katzman added is similar to the denial of the right of free emigration to those who desire it.